A Change of Pace
by Larania Drake
Summary: Will be a Kuwa/Hiei fic. Evil kittens and aquatransexuals... can life be weirder?
1. Default Chapter

**A Change of Pace**

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Disclaimer: Yu Yu Hakusho and Ranma 1/2 do not belong to me, and I make no money from this fanfiction at all.

A/N: This is a fusion with Ranma ½, and there will most likely be rampant OOC. This will also tie in with my other YYH fic, Junior. Yaoi, weirdness and lots of other crud will be associated with this.

Kuwabara Kazuma was staring up at the sky, thinking about his life.

Well, he'd just been helped there by Yuusuke Urameshi actually, in one of the squabbles, and now all he could do until he got feeling back into his legs was wait and think. 

He needed to get stronger, something. Somehow. 

He had to beat Urameshi, had to prove himself to the other Reikai Tentai. The tall boy had to- he knew no other way. There was a lot in his way- that was a given. As a human, he was the weakest member of the team, he wasn't always wanted, and he was afraid of being a burden.

Hiei and Kurama had given him some training- and he had gotten stronger for it. Okay- that means he had to get more training. Where? Asking for help from Yuusuke or any of the others would defeat the purpose; he wanted to surprise them.

So- find a place to train, or a person to train him.

This meant research.

This caused the breathless Kazuma to groan faintly. He HATED anything associated with studying...

~*~*~*~*~

Computers had become, for the most part, more user friendly.

This did not mean they liked humans, or anyone who tried to use them. Kuwabara was about to smash the damned possessed heap of junk out of sheer frustration. It had been giving him the blue screen of death every ten minutes, meaning he had to reboot it, over and over again, and that meant he had gotten only a little bit of information in the past five hours of being in the library.

(What Kuwabara DIDN'T know was that his spirit abilities caused hell with the electrical current, even the programming, of any computer he used. He also didn't know about the gremlin that had been setting up all the computers in the area to crash at the slightest nudge. Thus- bad luck for the Mighty Kuwabara.)

His labors were bringing him little fruit. For one thing, libraries really weren't equipped with the kind of esoteric information he wanted, and he really wasn't a very good researcher. A general, irrational nervousness about being called an idiot for being there meant he had little practice, and he was still on the jumpy side. That, plus the dirty looks he was getting from the woman behind the librarian's desk...

"What are you doing here?" asked a quiet voice in his ear, and Kuwabara jumped about three feet out of the tiny chair he'd sat in to whirl around.

The person who had verbally goosed him, all four feet with the extra foot of spiky hair, was Hiei.

"What the hell are YOU doing here? Trying to kill me without the others around?" the orange haired warrior snapped loudly, earning a hissed "quiet" from the librarian.

"Had I wanted you dead, you would be," Hiei stated, calmly. "Your guard was down."

Kuwabara's answer to that was to turn a furious red and implode his face- before Hiei went on.

"There is a mission. Botan found me first, so I came to find you. Why is an idiot in a place of knowledge?"

Kuwabara flushed again, this time out of embarassment. He didn't want to tell Hiei what he had been up to-

"Training grounds?" the fire demon muttered, not changing his tone but raising an eyebrow, and looked at his team mate. "Trying to get stronger?"

All the taller boy could do was growl.

"Why don't you try Jusenkyo?" Hiei finally said, after a pause, face expressionless. He winked out, before Kuwabara could answer him, leaving the confused human behind.

  


~*~*~*~*~*~

Kazuma Kuwabara stared out over the rather puny looking Training Ground in front of him, vaguely disappointed. All he saw was a bunch of poles stuck in the water. 

Okay, so his senses were telling him there was something BAD about this place, but it was nothing he could see, hear, or smell. Not that he could see much in this fog...

Why had Hiei told him about this place? Was he joking with him? Had he been serious?

Hiei really didn't seem to have a sense of humor.

Shrugging, thinking that if he was there, he might as well try it, he leapt up to the closest of the poles.

A shout made Kuwabara wobble on the pole he had perched on. He nearly pitched over, but managed to leap to another pole at the last moment. The shout came again.

"What the hell are you doing here?" someone screamed again, and Kuwabara saw Hiei materialize on one of the poles opposite him. The red head blinked in bewilderment.

"What am I doing here? You told me to come!"

"I didn't think you would be so stupid as to actually-"

"I don't see what the prob-"

This was when fate decided to be its normally bitchy self. The pole beneath Hiei decided to shatter, scattering debris all over the waters below, sending the small demon plunging down. Now- for Hiei, this shouldn't have been a problem. He could have winked out.

What fate decided to screw with that day was Kuwabara- who had seen his teammate fall, and instinctively dived after him, shoving him away from the pool, and hopefully to dry land.

Of course, it didn't work this way.

Kuwabara instead hit the pool Hiei had NOT been going to fall in to- and Hiei, surprised by the rather strong slap, sailed into the nearby murky waters.

~*~*~*~*~

Kuwabara's resurfacing was rather... unspectacular. His head found air, he breathed, choked, sputtered, and dragged himself ashore, knees and elbows slogging through the sandy mud. 

Gods, what had happened? He felt like shit. His sixth sense had gone berserk when he'd fallen. Now he had a headache like Koenma had uses his pacifier on his skull.

Looking around, he didn't notice at first that his hands were... smaller. It was in the midst of his musings and mutters about his headache, and all speculation screeched to a halt when he did.

The hand was almost delicate, the bones very fine. Sitting up, Kuwabara looked at her other hand, and it matched the first.

Then, she looked at her chest. 

Her scream rocked the valley.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Some time later...

Yukina smiled, watching the birds bathe in puddles on the grounds of Genkai's temple after the recent rain, sipping her tea contentedly. The day had broken clear, though, and a breeze was blowing to balance the humidity. All in all, it was a lovely-

A bedraggled girl, dressed in a blue uniform holding a small black kitten with a star on its forehead appeared- 

-Day.

Startled, the ice maiden nearly spilled her tea. This young woman looked oddly familiar, but she couldn't place her, and her bedraggled appearance sparked her sympathy. So did the adorable kitten she held.

"You poor thing!" the demoness nearly shrieked, and immediately stood. She grabbed hold of the smaller girl and started to drag her away, when she was interrupted by a sharp, older voice.

  


"Who's there?"

"Master Genkai," Yukina answered. "This person just showed up and she looks awful! We have to help her!"

There was a pause as Genkai sized up the newcomer. She was just shorter than Yukina, with curly black hair that was cut short but fell over one of her blue eyes in the front. Her high, sharp cheekbones and slightly rounder chin made her look familiar, for some reason. And her ki... A wry quirk appeared in the old master's mouth.

"I would like to talk to this young one," she said, and the girl's hands tightened, then immediately loosened, around the kitten she was holding. Yukina looked confused.

"If you would please make some tea?" Genkai said, and Yukina nodded, walking away, looking nervously at the old master. Once the ice demon had left the room, Genkai smiled faintly and shook her head.

"What shit have you gotten yourself into this time, Kuwabara?"

The girl's reaction was the last thing that Genkai would have expected from the young man- she burst into nearly hysterical tears.

~*~*~*~*~

"A-an then, I found Hoshi-chan off the shore and I hope Hiei got out alright and didn't turn into a girl too but that would be sort of funny but then I found out that I turn back with hot water but it rained almost the entire trip back and I couldn't stay dry long enough to be a guy at all and that was a month ago and now I feel all weird and achy and I can't seem to stop crying! Its awful master Genkai!" snuffled the boy turned girl, who was drinking the tea that Yukina had made and placed in front of them, before leaving.

Genkai wondered if she should smack the poor confused idiot or just send her for a bath. The elderly warrior had to resist the laughter that was just beneath the surface… Of course, considering that the kitten she was holding so lovingly had the same energy as Hiei was not something she was going to tell. Oh no, this was the most entertainment she'd had in ages. 

"Did you find out that there is no cure, other than the temporary reversal of hot water?" Genkai questioned, as Kuwabara's eyes filled up with tears again. The kitten looked rather distressed, like he had seen this far too often lately, and climbed up on to his shoulder to bite the crying human's ear.

"Sorry Hoshi-chan," she sniffled more, petting the kitten. Kuwabara had insisted the kitten be given some ice cream, and was rather sticky now. The little cat looked extremely pleased with himself.

"You realize you could have asked anyone of the Reikai Tentai for training," Genkai stated flatly, still trying to not laugh.

Kuwabara sighed miserably. "I wanted to, you know… Get stronger so I could, you know, work better for the team…"

Genkai pinched the bridge of her nose. "Kuwabara, if you weren't so anal about being a fighter, I'd suggest you try healing. Your awareness and gifts would work well for that and you are going to hit the limits of your strength when it comes to fighting. Kurama can do a lot with his plants but not everything. Besides, nitwit, your going to have to learn how to deal with being a girl. Unless you WANT to tell everyone you were an idiot and went to Jusenkyou and let yourself get cursed."

The look of horror on her face answered that.

"By the way, those aches and emotional upheavals you feel? You're starting your period. Go take a hot bath and we'll try to work things out."

Kuwabara nodded, wiping her nose on her sleeve, shuddering as she remembered how her sister got on her period. That was another thing she didn't want to think about. Heading towards the bathhouse, the kitten leapt down from her shoulder, and trotted towards Genkai. With a quick jump, it leapt into a cup of hot tea-

Leaving a very nude and very annoyed looking Hiei sitting in front of the warrior woman.

"Nice view," Genkai said blandly, then smirked. Hiei realized he was sitting in front of a woman, without clothes, suddenly flitted out of sight to return, now wrapped in one of his usual black robes sans pants and boots. He scowled at the old woman.

"I'm old, not dead, Hiei," she said calmly, continuing to sip her tea. "I take it there is a reason you keep posing as Kuwabara's new pet?"

Hiei's expression turned faintly thoughtful, sipping a fresh cup of tea. 

"I didn't know he trusted me enough to take my advice," he finally answered, after a long pause for thought. 

"That doesn't explain why you let him pet you like you were actually at cat." 

_Or why you were purring when he did it,_ the woman thought, but didn't say. She really didn't want to have a Black Dragon Wave aimed at her.

"He was trying to help me… though I didn't need it. Plus, he… when he found me… I was being chased by something and… nearly eaten. Kuwabara will do just about anything to save a cat," Hiei muttered, his face turning the oddest shade of red.

Genkai did not ask him to elaborate. 

"We weren't able to get to hot water for a long time."

Hiei knew the legends of the place, and when he had suggested Jusenkyo, it had been an insult to Kuwabara's intelligence. He was surprised that Kuwabara had actually tried to go there, and a nagging fear of getting Yukina mad at him had made him try to stop the idiot human. 

He'd had to depend of Kuwabara to get them out of there- as a kitten he was nearly helpless. What he'd learned was that Kuwabara was really worried about him… It was an odd feeling. It was also pleasant, in an odd way, to be someone or something else for a while…

With a look of disgust, he splashed himself with the now cold tea and climbed out of his robe- the baka ningen had returned, his proper self and with wet hair. He'd come to expect being suddenly scooped up and cuddled to the muscled (or softly rounded, depending on Kuwabara's state of dryness) chest. This time was no exception.

"What do I do now, Genkai?" Kuwabara asked, looking like a whipped puppy.

"I was thinking about that… I would suggest you become Yukina's student in healing. She would give you an excuse to be here, no matter your form- and you need to tell your sister. She would know who you are anyways…"

While this was going on, Hiei had climbed up Kuwabara's shirt again- and was draped around his neck, unconsciously purring… and he fell asleep.

To be continued!


	2. II

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1A Change of Pace II

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Disclaimer: Neither Yu Yu Hakusho or Ranma 1/2 belong to me, and I make no money from this work of fanfiction at all.

A/N: As this is more or less humor, expect some OOC though I will try to keep them vaguely IC. NO promises. Ties in with my other YYH fic, Junior.

            Hiei kept his claws sunk into Kuwabara's blue uniform tightly, watching everything from his view just below the red head's ear. He was going 'home' now, and was still not completely sure why he was doing this.

            Okay, the idiot had been more worried about him than about his own transformation, at least at first. Yeah, and it was his fault (though he would hotly deny it if asked) that they both were cursed, though the oaf was as much at fault.

            Really.

            Thus, Hiei was now a house pet.

            "Hey, what did you drag home this time?" slurred a drunken voice, and Shizuru, Kuwabara's older sister and oracle, got up to stagger over and peer at the small creature cuddled next to his neck. She stared at Hiei with a gaze that would slice concrete- then started laughing.

            "What's so funny about Hoshi-chan?" Kuwabara sounded hurt. 

            "Nothing, nothing," she sputtered, looking away. Hiei had the terrifying realization that she could see through whatever curse was on him. Kuwabara, with his love and trust of kittens, had not expected to see something different. "You just have a very, very cute pet..."

            Kuwabara growled in exasperation, but he gently pinched Hiei at the scruff of his neck, causing a very surprised kitten to curl up into a ball as he was put on the floor. The cursed demon scampered away, his hindquarters, due to his immature form deciding about halfway across the room to fall over, and made both ningens laugh.

            "What happened to you THIS time, little bro?"

            The tears that had been following Kuwabara didn't resurface, but he sighed and hunched his shoulders. Going over to the sink, he got a cup, put some cool water in it and dumped it over his head.

            Shizuru stopped laughing.

            Carefully, she walked over to a chair, sat down- and started laughing so hard tears started streaming down her cheeks. Then the chair fell over- and she was still laughing.

            "SHIZURU!" Kuwabara squeaked loudly, her female voice now making the squeak nearly unbearable to listen to.

            "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! NOT!" she kept laughing.

            Kuwabara stared at her, about to take a swing- then turned around and left, crying and locked herself into the bathroom.

            "Well I'll be damned... he really has turned into a girl!"

            She then proceeded to laugh herself sick.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            Hiei watched Shizuru continue to laugh, tail twitching and going around to sniff everything available. His kitten instincts scented another cat around, and he wanted to find her before she found him. His thoughts were interrupted, however, but a soft trill.

            Blinking, he looked around, the smell of the other cat getting stronger. Then a large, plump orange feline landed in front of him, headed tilted curiously. 

            Hiei arched his back, getting ready to hiss and turn sideways to hop away, when the cat trilled at him again. Despite himself, he relaxed, and the cat got close enough for them to bump noses. They breathed in each other's faces, and the large orange cat- Hiei thought her name was Eikichi- abruptly bit the scruff of his neck.

            Under normal circumstances... Hiei would have freaked out. However, the kitten body went obediently limp, head cocked to the side, looking nearly broken while his legs and tail curled up while he was carried away.

            He wanted to struggle, wanted to leave... However, the giant cat had decided otherwise, and then Eikichi trotted into someone's bedroom, and to Kuwabara's bed, and he found himself deposited into the blankets.

            Then to his everlasting astonishment- Eikichi started to give him a bath. He tried to get away, only to then be cuffed on the head, and again, his kitten body reacted. It told his instincts that he had been bad and his dam was going to give him a bath whether he liked it or not.

            A soft chuckle told him he was being watched.

            "Ah, its okay Hoshi-chan, Eikichi does that with every orphan I bring home. She's a good dam," Kuwabara said, and went over to rub the kitten under the chin. Hiei found himself submitting to the caress, because 'his dam' was watching, and then his ears were tugged gently, rubbed... and he nearly fell over purring so hard.

            Kuwabara had a towel wrapped around his waist, flushed and damp from his bath, and was rubbing his short shock of carrot hair dry. Then he dropped his waist towel-

            Hiei whipped his head around in shock. What the hell was he doing-

            He was a kitten, he realized. Cats don't give a damn if someone is nude or not. They don't really care that this particular human was... well hung...

            The red-eyed kitten wished he could roll his eyes, but had to settle for swishing his tail violently. He did NOT just think that. Not about the oaf.

            Kuwabara had dressed in boxers and muscle shirt and headed over to the bed, giving both cats a good petting. Hiei tried to wiggle out of this, but was stopped again by his new dam. Gently scooped up into Kuwabara's hands, he stared at the giant in front of him... who was now wiggling around on his futon, and then settled the kitten down where it would be comfortable.

            The light next to his bed was clicked out, and Hiei was left, very confused, thinking about how things were going to go from then on.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            He was unafraid.

            He was mighty, his claws long and his teeth sharp.

            With a defiant butt wiggle, Hiei the kitten followed his kitten instincts, springing out from under the covers at the foot of Kuwabara's futon to wrap his furry legs and claws into the red haired ningen's ankle and biting the holy hell out of it.

            "YEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWWW!" 

            Kuwabara was NOT happy. "Hoshi-chan! Bad!"

            He continued ankle biting. He was then tapped smartly on the head with a loud "NO!"

            Hiei stared in astonishment as his instincts told him that he had done something horrible and that the pride leader would punish him now. This caused the kitten to run back under the covers, looking at him with shock.

            Watching his human, Hiei saw him go to the bathroom, splash himself with cold water, and then heard a feminine yelp as he forgot his curse. He tended to do that, Hiei noted.

            I need to get out of here, the fire demon thought, wishing he could frown. I'm starting to really act like a cat. Its fun to annoy the oaf but he knows all of the counters.

            Of course, there was the matter of getting out without clothing. His own was scattered two and fro... And that Shizuru obviously knew that Hiei wasn't a kitten. Those were things to ponder after he had his shape back.

            The oaf changed back to himself with hot water, then into his blue school uniform, and made to leave. 

            Looking around frantically, the tiny kitten spotted Kazuma's school satchel. It was plain brown and half empty- it was a Saturday and that meant only half a day of classes. Skittering across the floor, for once his fore and hindquarters cooperating, he scrambled into the open bag and dived under some of the books. 

            He got there just in time, because a half second later, Kuwabara had closed the bag, and whistling, set out for classes. Too bad he couldn't whistle on any particular tune… 

~*~*~*~*~*~

            The sun was shining brightly for the first time in days, bathing the back of a cheerful tall redhead as he walked briskly to school. 

            The rain the previous night had washed out the pollution from the air, and left it smelling clean, it was cool and not humid yet, and he was halfway to school-

            When a tractor trailer rig drove by, spattering him, now her, with dirty water. 

            Kazuma wanted to cry, but settled for cursing. She didn't realize how cute she looked, wet and bedraggled as she was. Of course, the local gang whose territory she was walking through to get to school, noticed immediately. 

            Trudging along, she didn't notice the group of schoolboys until they had ringed around her. The way they were looking at her had her baffled. No one had ever leered at her like that… It should be noted that a masculine self-image kept Kuwabara from realizing what the boys were doing. Not her fault really.

            You try being an aquatransexual. It'll play with your head, too.

            "Hey, sweetie, what's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?" asked the head thug- who looked oddly familiar with his glasses. It took Kuwabara even longer to realize that the punk was talking to her. She kept looking over her shoulder.

            She didn't even realize the boys were starting to circle closer until one of them howled in pain- and Kazu-chan realize that Hoshi-chan was hanging from the crotch of the head thug- having sunk his teeth and claws into the material as hard as he could.

            "LEAVE HOSHI-CHAN ALONE!" 

            Charging at the boy, Kazu-chan was about to beat his teeth out, when a green clad intruder started knocking heads. Between the two of them, the gang was out in seconds.

            Hoshi-chan had taken a glancing blow to the skull and was currently trying to make the world stop being double, when Kazu-chan picked him up and started cuddling.

            "What the hell did you do that for?" she snarled, getting up into Yuusuke's face, nearly spitting. "It was my fight!"

            Yuusuke, expecting to be thanked, nearly fell backwards. Putting his hands up, he answered. "EASY! Hey lady, I was just trying to help! I mean, really! What was I supposed to think- a girl being surrounded by a gang? Should I have just walked away?"

            This made Kuwabara pause. Maybe it was the lack of testosterone, but she was able to think about what Yuusuke said instead of being offended by being called a lady. She knew from experience that Yuusuke had trouble hurting girls and that he would go out of his way to help one… Keiko usually. Then she was abruptly aware of how close they were- and she felt suddenly shy. She didn't see the red across her cheekbones, but Hiei DID.

            "Who are you? I mean, I haven't seen you around here before," Yuusuke said, trying to fill in this bizarre pause. 

            "Kuwabara," Kazu-chan answered without thinking, then her eyes tried to bulge out of her head, trying to cover her slip.

            "Kuwabara... uh, Kasumi!"  Kazu-chan tried to cover up her lapse, sputtering.

            "Nice to meet you," Yuusuke grinned, and Kuwabara blushed more, stuttering back. "Are you related to Kuwabara Kazuma?"

            Kuwabara is… Kuwabara is… Hiei blinked in surprise. Did the baka ningen LIKE Urameshi? 

            "He's, uh- my cousin!" Lying was dishonorable, but she COULDN'T let Urameshi know who she really was!

            Urameshi suddenly had his face full of hissing, biting and scratching kitten, trying to rip his face off.

            "FUCK!" he shouted, and pulled the koneko off his face before tossing it away. The cat yowled in anger, before Yuusuke turned to look back at the pretty new girl.

            "YOU HURT HOSHI-CHAN!" Kazu-chan howled- and unleashed Keiko's Slap of Righteous Fury.

            Yuusuke's face was soon imbedded in the sidewalk while Kuwabara walked away, nose in the air, hugging a very smug kitten. And for the first time…

            Kazuma Kuwabara had defeated Yuusuke Urameshi.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            Hiei didn't know why he'd been so angry with Urameshi. He just didn't like the idea of his human looking at another human like that.

            Hold it… his human? 

            Hoshi-chan had marked Kuwabara as his territory. Even as a young tom he could do that, and Kuwabara was HIS.

            This whole kitten thing was getting to him, he realized, even as he changed back to his normal short self and stole a set of overalls. He'd run away from Kuwabara earlier- and Kuwabara didn't stop him, because "Hoshi-chan" had done it before and come back.

            Running off, Hiei tried to find his clothes. His 'good' set was at the bottom of the spring in China. His other set was in the woods, near Genkai's. Hopefully they would still be there.

            When he arrived, Yukina was smiling to herself, sitting in the garden and sipping tea.

            "Hello, Hiei-san!" she chirped brightly. "Did you hear? I'm getting a new student!"

            Hiei blinked. "Yes I did."

            "I don't know her name yet, but she is supposed to have a lot of potential, and I am looking forward to teaching what I know to someone."

            Hiei didn't answer, just walked away.

            _Splash!!!_

"Oh, Hiei, I didn't see you there," Genkai deadpanned, looking at the kitten, shaking itself to get rid of the water. She was holding a mop bucket. 

            Genkai walked away, and Hiei mewed in surprise as Yukina, who squealed in delight, scooped him up.

            "What an adorable kitten!"

            It was then that Hiei realized the water Genkai had thrown out was clean, and she had stolen his clothes…

            That bitch… And he was being smothered by cuteness!

To be continued!


End file.
